OO2

Shepherds Bush Empire

Accompanied this time by a musicianly ear - Mike - who played sax with Wasted Youth in the 80s. This band toured with the Only Ones in the early 80s and they turned him on to the OOs, who had by then split.

Mike wasn't as smitten as I am by what he saw. He's not a fan of bands past their heyday re-forming, though he makes an exception for Dexys. He reckons some of the playing was loose - The Beast a 'mess', though I enjoyed it. He figured support band - Perrett's kids - were tighter. Have to say that the Nottingham gig was much more intimate and satisfying.

Good turnout by the London crowd - standing area was jam-packed to the point where you remembered that it was a good thing that you stopped going to gigs (happened to me when I was about 26). All those big bastards, too big to chin or pick an argument with, standing in front of you blocking your view or jostling you.

Set list more or less the same as Wednesday, with the addition of As My Wife Says and Someone Who Cares. Missing were Why Don't You Kill Yourself and No Solution. Lovers of Today was the last encore. Me and My Shadow became first encore, which worked nicely I thought, as it allowed for Kellie to get some deserved acclaim as the band joined him one by one to perform the song.

The better bits were a blistering Another Girl, Another Planet which sounded ten times better than on Wednesday and, for me at any rate, The Beast. Amess perhaps but a deeply satisfying one.

Roll on the Hyde Park show on Thursday where, I understand, Air, Queens of the Stone Age and the White Stripes are on the supporting bill.